Covid Support Thread
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BGM, I think you’re right. My plan is to bring it up calmly and neutrally, saying how surprised I was to see it given how committed to equality I know the company to be. I don’t want to qualify it with any “I’m sure he didn’t meant it that way/ wasn’t aware of the optics/ whatever”, nor will I suggest any consequences, just state the fact and that I was surprised and upset. I fully expect my boss to tell me she is addressing it in the background, she definitely wouldn’t shy away from that, but I do think I have an obligation to speak up anyway. This is something I can do as an ally.
Genuine question from a non-American who doesn’t have a fulsome understanding of racism in the US: Why are people being cancelled for expressing disdain for looting (even when they support protesters in the same breath). If people were storming police stations and tearing those apart, that I would get, but burning businesses? I don’t understand that as a response to rightful outrage about unrelated atrocities. Or are they related? Would appreciate an education on that point.
I watch protests in great fear of a massive COVID wave resulting and not everyone has access to health care.
So, at a high level, human life > personal property, right? Yes, it’s shitty that people’s businesses are being destroyed, especially small businesses, but what matters here is that people are fighting for their lives. Focusing on the looting that’s being done by a few bad actors in the midst of overwhelmingly PEACEFUL protests by people who are fed up with being killed by systemic racism and police brutality not only misses the point, but it takes the focus off the incredibly important issues people are standing up for.
ALSO, if someone like golfer.gal’s colleague shares images of Black people looting, it’s pretty clear what the problem is with that, right? It’s trying to paint a picture of Blacks engaged in criminal activity rather than exercising their first amendment rights, which is vile. Not to mention, white people are doing plenty of looting.
And one other thing. The looting is often done by people who are showing up at these peaceful protests to take advantage. Their motives are bad, but they don’t represent the motives of most people there. Also, we’re 3 months into a pandemic that’s put millions of people out of work with shit for government help tbh, and it disproportionately affects Blacks and just poor people in general. So if they’re helping themselves to some essentials, I’m not standing in too much judgment of that. People are literally starving and dying. You guys have much better govt benefits than we do, but your record on equality isn’t that great.
“Genuine question from a non-American who doesn’t have a fulsome understanding of racism in the US: Why are people being cancelled for expressing disdain for looting (even when they support protesters in the same breath)”
No one is getting “canceled” for this.
If that guy gets fired, it’s for being racist at work, which is absolutely a fireable offense. Not sure who is getting canceled though.
Fyodor, I’ve been seeing people being ‘canceled’ (with that language) on Twitter. A couple that come to mind are a woman who owns a lit agency called Red Sofa who said people were looting a business on the corner and she was going to call police because she felt like she might be at risk. People freaked out, said to leave the looters be, her staff quit and on it went. Another literary agent, Marisa something or other, wrote a tweet expressing BLM support and saying that there is no reason for violence at protests and protests should be peaceful. Staff starting quitting, people starting attacking her online (she then closed down her shop).
Kate, thanks for your notes. As to Canada, we absolutely have issues. A study was done here about the marginalization of indigenous people in Canada vs Blacks in the US and our report card showed we’re worse. The US situation is just so horrifying that it is causing our governments to hold that mirror up to ourselves and there have been lots of commitments to do better in the last couple of days.
Are those instances confirmed, and not fake news? I guess I’m skeptical that the staff would quit. People can’t really afford to quit their jobs.
Kate, there are multiple posts from longtime agents posting that they quit and why, and then authors saying they’re moving too etc. There are also screen grabs of the initial tweets that started things. Lots of other agents and authors expressing support etc. I didn’t go looking for any of it, it just starting filling my feeds (as I follow many in the industry).
